{"id":111421,"date":"2015-06-30T17:25:31","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T23:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/archaeologist-talks-about-birds-petroglyphs\/"},"modified":"2015-06-30T17:25:31","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T23:25:31","slug":"archaeologist-talks-about-birds-petroglyphs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/archaeologist-talks-about-birds-petroglyphs\/","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologist talks about birds, petroglyphs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kissing
Kissing birds are depicted on a cliff face petroglyph panel at Mesa Verde National Park.<\/span>Tobie Baker\/The Mancos Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In the Middle Ages, Christians shared oral stories of Jesus through stain glass images.<\/p>\n

Across the Southwest about the same time, Ancestral Puebloans, with no written language, relied on imagery to pass down their traditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople remember pictures,\u201d said archaeologist Sally J. Cole, author of \u201cLegacy of Stone: Rock Art of the Colorado Plateau and Four Corners Region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before a crowd of about 50 people, Cole spoke as part of the Four Corners Lecture Series at Mesa Verde National Park last week. Her hourlong talk centered on bird figures found in petroglyphs and paintings of the Ancestral Pueblo tradition.<\/p>\n

Cole\u2019s lecture included photos of petroglyphs found in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico \u2013 mating birds, mythical birds, polka dot birds, human figures with ducks for heads, flying turkeys, turkeys, whispering birds, love birds, macaws with curved beaks and long tails, eagles spitting out seeds and even a horned mythical bird or monster raven.<\/p>\n

Asked why the Native ancestors would depict a bird to serve as the head atop human figures, Cole speculated the images might have represented a crown.<\/p>\n

Cole added that the petroglyphs were more than artistic expressions \u2013 they were used in place of a written language to pass down oral traditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it started, art was a way to talk, to share your culture, your society and your traditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA picture is worth a thousand words, right?\u201d she posed. \u201cIt\u2019s all about education.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Four Corners, the Anasazi depicted at least 45 species of birds. Ducks, turkeys and eagles were the most common, but quails, swallows, magpies and bats were also carved into cliffs.<\/p>\n

Cole also shared images of birds on pottery and wood. A mural portrayed feathers attached to a tree-like figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feathers represent prayers,\u201d she said. \u201cFeathers were essential to communicate with the spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole is adjunct faculty member of the Department of Anthropology at Fort Lewis College and research associate at the museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

conveyed spiritual traditions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[855,13,2658],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-111421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-archaeology","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-united-states-of-america"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111421"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=111421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}